Netherland Family Reunion

The annual Netherland Family Reunion is scheduled for Sunday, August 30, 2009, in Coxburg, Mississippi. Each year, descendants of William Bailey Netherland and Martha Elizabeth Garrard, and allied family members, including Spencer family cousins, meet in Coxburg near the old family home of the Netherland family of Holmes County, Mississippi. The event is a potluck lunch where family members share their favorite dishes and engage in lively conversation about family happenings during the previous year.

More About the Garrards of Holmes County, MS

Yesterday, I again reviewed U. S. Census records for Garrard family members in Mississippi. According to U. S. Census records, there were two Garrard families residing in Holmes County, Mississippi in 1860. The family of Richard N. and Annie Lyles Garrard, my maternal great-great-grandparents, lived in the Eulogy Beat area, where they were enumerated. Also present in the household was my maternal great-grandmother, Martha Elizabeth Garrard, born in Alabama, who was seven years old.

Another family, headed by John Garrard, was counted in the "Thornton Town" area of Holmes County. According to the 1860 census record, John's wife was "Loiza." Since John and Richard are fairly close in age, and each was born in Georgia, it does appear the two men could have been brothers or possibly cousins.

Garrard Family Connections - VA>NC>GA

Recently, I began researching my mother's Garrard family connections, beginning with Martha Elizabeth Garrard, who was married to my maternal great-grandfather, William Bailey Netherland. Interestingly, I found an abundance of information about the Garrard family in America, from its beginnings in Virginia and later the family's life in Kentucky, to its southern migration to Georgia, Alabama, and eventually into Mississippi.


According to unsubstantiated sources, the Garrard family's origins had its origins in America through the French Huguenot, Peter Garrard. Although the surname today is most commonly spelled "Garrard," other versions, including two French versions, "Girard" and "Gerard," as well as as the Italian "Ghirardi" and "Girardi," have been used throughout time.


The availability of much historical information about the Garrard family is due in large part, to the fact that James Garrard was well-known for his service as the second Governor of the State of Kentucky. Garrard, born on January 14, 1749 and who died on January 9, 1822, was further immortalized when Garrard County, Kentucky, formed during his first term as governor, was named for him.


According to the book, Governor Garrard of Kentucky, written by Anna Russell des Cognets and published in 1898, three brothers named John, Robert and Jacob, allegedly the grandsons of Peter the Huguenot, settled in Stafford County, Virginia about 1750. It is said that Jacob Garrard was married in Virginia, first to Sarah Waters, a daughter of John Waters and Mary Elizabeth Hack, and later to Mildred (last name unknown.)

According to the book by des Cognets, records of Overwharton Parish in Stafford County shows that Anthony, one of the two sons born to Jacob Garrard and his second wife, Mildred, was christened on October 12, 1756. According to all accounts, Jacob Garrard moved his family to North Carolina sometime after that date, where another son, named Jacob for his father, was born in 1763. Jacob Garrard, Sr. is said to have been killed in North Carolina during the American Revolution.

Anthony Garrard, born September 6, 1756, married Elizabeth Green in Caswell County, North Carolina, around 1811, and it is from these two people that I descend. Anthony and his family later moved to Georgia, where he had received land from his service in the Revolutionary War. It was in Wilkes County that Anthony died in 1807.

Netherland Family Reunion - Coxburg, Mississippi, Sunday, August 31, 2008

The Netherland Family Annual Reunion will be this Sunday, August 31, 2008, at the Coxburg Community Center, Coxburg, Mississippi. But my mother and father will not be attending this year. My mother and father have always enjoyed meeting up with my mother's Netherland family relatives each year who come from several states and from as far away as New York City. Each person or couple attending the reunion bring a covered dish and share an afternoon together catching up on the latest family happenings since the past year. My mother's mind and her memory are miraculous, but her mobility is limited by osteoarthritis to such an extent this year that she and my father have decided they will not drive to Coxburg for the reunion. Her decision marks a specific point in her life, and in that of her family, because this was the once a year trip that symbolized the tie to her Netherland family and her roots in Holmes County, Mississippi.
My mother's father was Ralph Ernest Netherland, and her mother was Rosa Mae Pettus. Rosa Mae was born in 1908, and she was not even 18 years old when she married, Ralph, who was twenty-three years her senior. They had two children, my mother, who was born on October 8, 1926, and her only sibling, a brother, Reuben Netherland, born four years later.
Ralph Ernest Netherland was one of nine children born to William Bailey Netherland and Martha Elizabeth Garrard. According to the U. S. Census Record of 1850, William Bailey Netherland was born in Scotland. This explains the red hair that was so prominent on the Netherland side of the family.
Rosa Mae Pettus was born in Holmes County, Mississippi, the daughter of William Elza Pettus and Lucy Lula Trigleth. Ralph and Rosa Mae were divorced when my mother was 14 years old. A divorce in 1940 was almost unheard of and must have been traumatic for all family members involved, especially two children who were about 10 and 14 years of age. Rosa Mae Pettus Netherland remarried a few years later, and that husband died about 1953. Ralph Netherland never remarried and died in 1959 of stomach cancer. I saw him only once as a child just before he died of stomach cancer. Ironically, 6 of the 9 children, including Ralph, who were born to William Bailey Netherland and Martha Elizabeth Garrard, died of stomach cancer. A few died during their young adult years.
The stomach cancer information was unknown to many Netherland family members, including my mother, until a book entitled The Neatherlin, Leatherlin Connections and their Allied Families, was written by Gena Ayres Walls, who lives with her husband, a Netherland descendant, near Houston, Texas. Gena has written a genealogy column for her local newspaper for a number of years, and she used her very good research skills, coupled with her writing experience to compile the Netherland book. The book is complete with photocopies of actual documents, including death certificates for some of the family members who died of stomach cancer. Publication of the book was funded, in part, by Clarence Netherland, one of my mother's distant cousins.
I met Clarence Netherland because of the book. I discovered a copy of the Netherland book in the Erikkson Public Library in Dallas, Texas, where it had been donated by Clarence, and I later contacted him and asked if I could buy a copy of the book. Clarence owned Netherland Engineering in Dallas, Texas, until his death earlier this year. I purchased a copy of the book for my mother, and it was one of only three copies remaining at the time.
Now a quick plug for the Erikkson Public Library: it has one of the best, if not THE best genealogy collections of a modern public library, with almost an entire floor devoted to books, microfilm, and other types of publications. A bank of computers is available to access other documents contained in online collections. Paid staff, as well as many volunteers from the very active Dallas County Historical Society are on hand daily to assist researchers.
It makes me sad that my mother will be unable to attend the reunion this year. But time goes on, people get older, and things change.